Seafarers explore the complexities of adulthood and finding your way on their rousing and engrossing third album Another State
Since forming back in 2018, Seafarers have been bathed in praise and critical acclaim for their engrossing and distinctive blend of indie rock, chamber pop, and jazz, making for a captivating and one-of-a-kind listening experience that meanders and explores the confines of their sound in creative and dynamic fashion.
With the release of their new third album Another State, the outfit continue to venture further into rousing territory, starting with the punchy and dynamic bite of ‘Bedwetters’. The single sets the tone for the album really nicely, finding Seafarers using their elaborate sound to square up to their demons head on with a sense of defiance and grace that feels enrapturing.
The track feels like a masterclass in towing the line between the subtle and the impactful, and the resonating melodies of ‘Another State’ embody this principle with a sound that feels both simple and incredibly nuanced and expansive, allowing you to delve into their style with as much or as little depth as you please, while enjoying its catchiness and charm all the same.
Lead single ‘Televangelists’ boasts one of the band’s most stunning and haunting melodies to date, delving into murky territory like technology and religion with the kind of contemplative softness that feels emblematic of their appeal, whereas ‘Melissa’ has an altogether more universal and relatable feel, looking back on old lost friends as we all try to navigate our own ways through life and what our futures look like.
People in transit, trying to find their paths as they venture through adulthood are something that are explored throughout the album across the collection of tracks. ‘Everything I’d Do (To Get a Hold on You)’ throws us headfirst into a destructive relationship with the kind of deftness and gravity that the band create in such resonating fashion, while ‘Crashing Cars’ continues to look at the passage of time and how people around us are maturing and seeing their lives and priorities change.
The claustrophobic and intense ‘Tiny Itch’ has an almost Pulp-like atmosphere to it through its breathy and all-too anxiety inducing verses, painting an uncomfortable, stream-of-conscious picture of an unravelling life that all feels a little bit too much and too real, standing out as especially unique on an album that is full of memorable and immersive moments.
The tender nature of ‘Tough Kids’ feels like a welcome bit of respite following that, returning back to the stellar, piano-based approach that has lit up so many Seafarers tracks, again searching themes like connection and relationships. The track puts an emphasis on getting on the same page and hoping for a genuine companionship and honesty when getting to know someone, and just adds to this real and very human experience that is explored throughout the LP.
On an album that concerns itself with life and the complexities and mysteries that come with it throughout, the engrossing closer ‘A Little Loss’ provides an intimate closer that feels like some kind of acceptance that this is just how things are and that’s how it is going to be. Not everything is going to be understood or revealed, and that is fine, and that’s just a part of being human.
The album has explores different characters and situations, people leaving home, losing themselves in new cities and finding themselves often in troubling situations, and it is in these in between moments, this limbo and uncertainty that we tend to exist most of the time, both liberating and terrifying, but intrinsically part of who we are.
